Tag archieven: Easter

Easter. Innocense regained

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Sermon on the 5th Sunday in Lent, April 3, 2022 ’t Goy

Dear sisters and brothers, the Church has chosen  readings from Scripture for this time of the year to help us prepare for Easter. “Behold, I am going to start something new. It has already begun, don’t you notice” says God through the prophet Isaiah (First reading) 1). If there is really anything and ever new, it is the resurrection of Jesus. And the apostle Paul rejoices so much at the fulfillment of God’s promise that he exclaims, “I will know Christ, and experience the power of his resurrection. I will do anything for that” (Second reading) 2). Those words also awaken in us the longing for the renewing power of Easter. But how does this Sunday’s Gospel help us prepare for Easter? 3) It is known to many as the story of “the adulteress.” But is that headline correct? In the original tekst of the Bible there are never headings or titles above the stories. It is a custom from the last century to make it easier to look up a specific text in the Bible. But you might as well call this passage the story of those hypocritical men, or of Jesus writing on the floor. Rather, the heading “the aduteress” says something about the patriarchal morality that used to determine thought and conversation, and which is what makes the story so famous. In some cultures women still have to cover their entire body because otherwise they would be a source of temptation. Even if they are victims of abuse, they are blamed. But practice shows otherwise. Recent affairs that have been widely reported in the newsmedia in recent years underline this like Metoo The story itself also confirms that old prejudice. For the men who arrested the woman for breaking the law say, “Master, this woman was caught in the act of committing aldultery”. Pay attention:  they don’t say, “We caught her.” That would mean they had been witnesses. But if they had been witnesses, couldn’t they have prevented the offense? And where has the man in question gone? In fact, they are not at all concerned with restoring the community by righteousness which is the meaning of law and justice. it’s theater what they perform to discredit Jesus by trapping him. For were Jesus to condemn the woman, he would lose the confidence of his followers who hoped that with Jesus mercy among men would prevail. If he didn’t condemn her, he would be known as a master who did not care about principles.
What is happening? Jesus bends down and writes with his indexfinger on the ground. A mysterious gesture. It could portray that Jesus is embarrassed by the behavior of these hard-hearted men. It is also a sign reminiscent of the prophecies that God will remove the heart of stone from His people and replace it with a heart of flesh. And that in the Messianic age he will write his law in their inward parts by his Spirit.
Then Jesus calls for self-knowledge and conversion: “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” For are we not the first and sometimes only witness of our own sins? This is one of the best known and most heard expressions in the Bible. Usually people think that it means that no one is allowed to judge because everyone has made a mistake of any kind at one time or another. But that would mean that we should never reject or condemn anything bad or wrong that someone else does. But the real point here is that the men didn’t witness the offense themselves. So they are false witnesses. They threaten to convict an innocent person. That is not a right at all, but the greatest imaginable injustice. That will happen to Jesus himself not much later. True justice means we must always be prepared to recognize the other first as a fellow human being and to take them back into the community. If we all look to ourselves and remember our sins, we will want to be treated that way ourselves. May God give us a new beginning. A completely clean slate.
That is why we are told this Gospel story and that is why the Church tells us this story as we prepare for Easter. Because at Easter we celebrate that God makes a new beginning with us through the cross and resurrection of Jesus. God grants us the forgiveness of sins and raises us up as new people when we have genuine regrets.
The scribes finally descend one by one. They are ashamed of their behavior. Two people remain. Jesus and the woman. Jesus has nothing to be ashamed of. He has silenced his opponents. The woman didn’t sneak out quietly  either. She stands upright. Does that mean she was indeed a victim of prejudice or even abuse? In any case she feels completely accepted by the love of Jesus who is the embodiment of God’s love: ‘Neither do I condemn you. Go and never sin from now on.” This is the farewell that Jesus grants people who he has healed like the leper and the lame
When we, sisters and brothers, hear the Gospel of Jesus and are touched by it, that is already forgiveness of sins. Jesus raises us up and gives a new and never ending start. Do you know that the priest or deacon who reads the Gospel during Mass always quietly says to himself at the end: May many sins be forgiven by the reading of the Gospel? That is every time a miracle, a new beginning, a true resurrection. Amen.

(c) Martin Los, pr
lessons for the Mass of the 5th Sunday in Lent C-Cyclus
1) Isaiah 43:16-21
2) St. Paul, letter to the Philippians 3:8-14
3) Joh 8:1-8
Picture: Christ and the adulteress by Titian Commons.wikimedia

Two brothers, one father

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Sermon on the 4th Sunday of Lent on Sunday, March 27, 2022 in Houten 1)

Dear sisters and brothers, Jesus was deeply moved to see people exclude each other. Excluding someone else actually means that the other person does not exist for you. You act as if the other is air.
How is that possible? What thought is hidden behind that way of life? Certainly not the awareness that our lives are a gift from God. A gift to ourselves, but also to others. So we are fundamentally related as creatures of God. That’s why it hurts so much these days to see people firing rockets at apartment buildings where people live, to see people buried in rubble, to see people on the run, to see people behind barbed wire in camps. Even though we can’t do anything about it ourselves, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t affect us, and that we can be indifferent to it. It’s intolerable. It is disgusting. Human dignity is at stake. We humans have been given life by God to support and enrich each other, to make the community flourish, to be diverse as we are, to live in peace with each other.
Even where there is no war and where there is no barbed wire, there are iron curtains in many places that separate people from each other. In families where someone stands up for themselves and becomes a black sheep, denominations that cut off all contact if someone goes their own way, not to mention invisible dividing lines through racial and class differences. We should not be satisfied with this as human beings and certainly not if we believe in God. He gave us with life to one another to live in communion. We must not resign ourselves to that hardness of heart if we follow Jesus who calls us children of “his heavenly Father”. We must do everything we can to find and strengthen the bond.
In the parable that Jesus tells, he gives us his vision of how we should treat each other 1). He put that vision into practice himself by interacting with all kinds of people, including men and women who were rejected in his circles and ignored as if they didn’t exist because they did not live up to the expectations of decent people. He let himself being excluded to save humanity and the world. The parable is commonly known as the “parable of the prodigal son.” But doesn’t that name mislead us? You might as well speak of the parable of the embittered son. Or why not rather “the parable of the merciful father and his sons”.
Notice the father who gives his son the freedom to make his own choice. He did not oblige him to continue working in his father’s business, so to speak. That was very common until not so long ago. The son goes his own way. He makes wrong choices. Not because he developed his own talent, but because he is guided by pleasure. He makes wrong choices. Not because he developed his own talent as if this is a sin. But because he is only guided by pleasure. He sinks deep. He comes to realize that the pigs he ultimately tends are better off than him. He longs to return to his father’s house, if only as a day labourer. He repents and turns back.
It is striking that his father is always on the lookout. Actually all the time, maybe for years. In his heart he has never forgotten his son. His heart is like a magnet that attracts the son. If we humans deeply repent of a transgression, God was already at work drawing us to Himself. He does not scold his son, but immediately orders his servants to prepare a feast.
But the father does not limit himself to the son who has returned. The other son does not come to the party because he is angry that his brother has been accepted into grace. He has always worked hard but there was never a special party for him. The father does not shrug, but goes to the brother. He tries to persuade him to turn around: Why aren’t you at the party? Why aren’t you happy. All mine is yours anyway. That brother of yours was dead and has come to life, he was lost and has been found.”
We must pay attention to the father with which Jesus, of course, refers to God the Father. He is a merciful Father who likes to let his children make new beginnings. Both the son who left him, and the son who always stayed at home but without joy, without spontanety.
Let us enjoy Easter to make a new beginning for ourselves and for each other. Because we turn from wrong ways, because we desire to return to God. In our repentance we may feel God Himself as a loving Father at work. We can also make a new beginning by no longer being bitter because God is merciful to sinners and gives new life. Let’s just be happy and do nothing more than forgive ourselves and hug each other. May we blossom as a new spring in the world so longing for a new beginning of freedom and peace.

Martin Los, pr

1) Sermon on the Gospel of the 4th Sunday in Lent 27 maart 2022
picture: Stained glass cathedral South Carolina Prodigal son Wikipedia